Behind on Reading

I need to read 13 more books to reach my 90 book goal on Goodreads. I have shamed my family. LOL.



AND I am one book behind. I was way ahead earlier this year, but a series of Did Not Finish books progressed into a I am slowly reading the books I have on my shelf. This is the danger of the internet. Procrastination. I need to get hopping and push through.

Oh and my husband stopped driving a semi-truck so we moved back to my home state and now I'm surrounded by family 24/7. But I'm so glad to be home. You have no idea. I am BACK IN CIVILIZATION! There are numerous book stores here! And a huge library.

Right now I'm reading Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce and on my brand new Nook Simple Touch (with Glowlight...I'm so happy. Kudos to husband's being out of town on your birthday and the guilty that follows.) I am reading The Selection by Kiera Cass. I've heard mixed reviews of The Selection but I hope I have a good experience.

I NEED to get hopping on the sequels and hot reads of 2011 and 2012:

• The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa (Iron Fey Series) Finished
• Outpost by Ann Aguirre (Sequel to Enclave) Finished
• Thumped by Megan McCafferty (Sequel to Bumped which I really didn't like but I'm hoping book two might pull through.)
• Timepiece by Myra McEntire (Hourglass Series)
• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand 
• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty)
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (Heard GREAT things about this one but I have yet to read it.)
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Once again, heard great things but haven't gotten to it yet.)
• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (I've yet to start this series)
• Crossed by Ally Condie (Sequel to Matched)
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (I always hear good reviews of books but hesitate to read them cause I don't want to be disappointed. Ugh so many books)
• Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Sequel to Divergent which I liked)
• Warm Bodies by Issac Marion (NOT YA - The author made that very clear. I kind of like the concept of this book and I'm willing to give it a shot. Plus there is supposed to be a movie made of it.....which actually looks entertaining.)

But I don't think I have enough time left in the year for some of these as they have a lot of pages. It is kind of a good thing that I now have internet. I can now talk to what few friends I actually have and keep up on book reviews from bloggers I follow. However, I waste so much time looking at funny pictures of cats or....heaven forbid if they put me back on Prednisone for my Lupus.....posting crazy stuff on the boards of Goodreads.



And here is a picture of my wonderful new NST with GLOWLIGHT!!! (No more lamp on making hubby angry.)

The pink strap is a bra strap I inserted so I could keep the cover closed. I think it contrasts with the lime green very well and does no damage to the cover when inserted.

I Always Show Up Late to the Party

Alright I am about to sound like a complete idiot. I did not know Google Friend Connect was losing the majority of its features. Now if you try to send a newsletter to your followers you go in circles around the help page. Apparently, this took place in March. Talk about being late to the party. So unfortunately I have had to send out a copy pasted message to all 20 followers.

I noticed that you are a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect (GFC). If you wish to remain a follower could you do me a really big favor and subscribe via email. If you wish to no longer follow the blog that is fine as well. Thank you for your time.

Minda

I apologize for this people but it had to be done. Anyways if everyone could please subscribe via email  at the top of the page should you wish to remain following this blog. Feedburner still works right? Anyone know? Apparently Feedburner is also going away? So I guess I will have to use Feedcat. This is some seriously confusing stuff.

Thanks and sorry for dropping the ball.

DNF Books and One Awesome Giveaway @ Bookish

I haven't posted in a while and I've been having a hard time finishing books. Nothing seems to hold my interest. I mean every book I started reading was a chore to get through and I DNFed a LOT of books. I mean just look at this list:

• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
• Shiver by Maggie Steifvater
• Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
• Blackout by Mira Grant

All of these....I could not finish. Not that there was necessarily anything wrong with them...I just could not make it through them. Anyways on to happier things!

The blog Bookish is giving away FOUR boxes of books from cleaning out her bookshelves. All of the offerings look great and from each box I can count at least 3 or 4 that I have been drooling over on Goodreads. Especially the first box which includes City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass. I have been dancing around these books for the last month. I wanna buy them but I keep talking myself out of it. Anyone ever do that?

Box 2 has a hardcover of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I have the ARC of this book and I highly recommend it. I rarely read Adult books but this one was spectacular. Also this box contains The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory. I have to say she is one of my favorite Historical Fiction authors. I loved her books about the Tudors, especially The Other Boleyn Girl. (The movie, not so much.)

Box 3 has a few ARCs I have heard of and the rest I haven't heard of but they sound interesting.

Box 4 has some of the most beautiful covers I have seen in a while. Look at that cover of Kissing Shakespeare. Tell me that is not down right breath taking.

This is definitely a do not miss opportunity. Currently there are over 10,000 entries. (But there are a possible 49 entries you can earn.)

The Giveaway ends October 31st and is International.

Review: The Name of the Star

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Aurora (Rory) is funny, witty, and fills the first few chapters with plenty of character. She is also Southern, which I love cause I am as well a Southerner and can relate to the fish out of water feeling.

"I once met a girl in line at Walmart who told me she was going to be on America's Next Top Model. When I next saw that girl, she was crashing a shopping cart into an old lady's car out in the parking lot. Signs. You have to read them."

"Annoy a Southerner, and we will drain away the moments of your life with our slow, detailed replies until you are nothing but a husk of your former self and that much closer to death."

These sentences had me hooked. I would also like to take this time to express appreciation for the detail put into the non living characters.

I enjoyed Johnson's writing style. The mix of comedy and suspense was captivating.

However I feel we could have done without the beginnings of a love triangle.


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Review: Enclave

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I felt so unsatisfied at the end. I don't know if there will be a sequel or not but I would like to know what happens to Deuce, Fade, and their companions. Some things were left unresolved and I really wanted to know what happens next. It felt like there was no conclusion at all. Just a sudden jarring stop in the middle of the road.

I like that the author took the time to research what life would be like after the apocalypse. And it makes sense the way the surviors are grouped into small enclaves with no knowledge of each others survival.

I think the point of the book was to tell a story of how diffferent societal enclaves would react to the same situation, the end of the world, and build their group based on what traditions were necessary for survival in the environment surrounding them. I think it also demonstrated how important it is to allow growth and new ideas shaped by changing circumstances to influence the development of the group in order for the society to survive.

I like the characters somewhat and felt Deuce was portrayed as a strong character. But I hate how many young adult heroines allow themselves to become entangled in tricky situations and then hit a mental brickwall with the inability to reason their way out. Basically, I hate when love triangles happen in a perfectly good story. This one was unnecessary and soiled the plot.



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Review: Feed

Feed by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I was turned off by the dialogue and I felt no draw toward the characters. This book gets zero stars because I did not read enough of it to give a rating.

The dialogue and language used by the characters made it dificult to understand what was really going on in the story. I could not take it anymore and after around 60/200 pages I decided to give it a rest.

The world is described with minimum detail. All I know is everyone speaks as if they are uneducated/unmotivated teenagers (not saying all teenagers were uneducated, I was referring to the teenagers who refuse to use proper language/grammar/punctuation when communicating.), even the adults , with a limited and skewed vocabulary. I kept expecting the characters to complain about how hard life is and how no one understands them or cares about their feelings. The typical kind of complaints you get from teenagers who lack depth and refuse to take avantage of the benefits provided to them.

I think a world based entirely on consumerism and technology implanted directly into the brain to feed mass advertisements and information could be one plausible future for our species. (And that is what scares the daylights out of me.) Do I want it to happen? No. Even without reading what few pages I have of this book, I still would not wish to see a future based on consumerism and 24/7 brain feeds.



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Review: Shiver

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I tried..but did not succeed in reading this book. Pretty sure I lack the warmth to enjoy this book. The cover is very pretty, yet I did not like Grace or Sam. The premise seemed interesting, but I will never know how it ended as I gave up half way through and listed this as Did Not Finish.



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Review: Empty

Empty by Suzanne Weyn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



When I read the summary of this novel I was very excited and could not wait to get started reading it. At first the characters were interesting and I liked how the setting was not vastly different from our current world. However, this story seemed to just keep strolling along. I felt no suspense or detectable plot. It was just....there. The characters just existed. It is kind of hard to describe but I will try.

You know how fresh baked bread has this wonderful taste and it is so delicious and you can taste the ingredients. It seems to just melt in your mouth and stimulate your taste buds. That is how a book with a great plot and suspense tastes. Before the first bite you can feel the excitement and can't wait to dive in and beginning cutting (or tearing if you are like me) piece after piece off to enjoy it.

Well this book was more like your generic, grocery store sliced bread. It tastes bland and is just something to hold together your lunch meat, cheese and sandwich dressing. Eaten by itself it doesn't really excite you or make you crave slice after slice.

The writing was not atrocious. The characters were not cliched and predictable. They were just boring. It was like watching someone go about answering their mail.

It was ok. It just was not exciting. And this makes me sad. I hoped for so much adventure and heart pounding plot. There did not even seem to be a climax.



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Review: Feed

Feed by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I was turned off by the dialogue and I felt no draw toward the characters. This book gets zero stars because I did not read enough of it to give a rating.



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Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Warning: Spoilers.

I think this just is not in my taste category. I tend to steer clear of mystery books and this book seems to be in that genre. I did decide to read it because of course it was getting plenty of attention a few years back. While the mystery of what happened to Harriet is appealing, I did not enjoy the characters. Lisabeth did not strike a "you go girl" feeling. (Basically I did not find myself rooting for her.) Then recently I watched the movie and did not find myself enjoying that, but the ending and mystery of what happened is pretty much ruined. I do know that Harriet is still alive and from looking it up on Wikipedia. I do know that she is supposed to be living in Australia. So I have rated this book based on what I did read of it. I rated it 2 stars because the book was OK, I did not LIKE it so therefore I cannot rate it a 3 star book. I basically put a rating up here because I felt that way about the book. Even having looked up the ending then skimming the last few pages I felt no draw toward the novel.



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